Big Picture Project at Varha's RDIE-Day (Southwest Finland Wellbeing Services County)

On September 22, 2025, the Big Picture project was presented at Varha’s RDIE-Day (Research, Development, Innovation, Education). The presentation focused on an important challenge: the number of people over 85 years in the Varha region will almost double by 2040. This means healthcare professionals will need new skills to support older people with complex health needs.

The audience was invited to imagine being 85 years old, living with several chronic illnesses, taking many medications, and experiencing natural changes related to aging – physical, mental, social, and biological. In this situation, registered nurses play a key role in examining and referring the patient to the right service as needed based on the results of the CGA. They need the ability to see the whole person – not just the symptoms – and understand what affects their health and daily life, for multiple and often very complex ways.

The Big Picture project is developing new training for nurses to improve their skills in geriatric assessment. So far, we have in Finland learned these skills only in practical work under the guidance of geriatricians and colleagues. The education is designed by clinical professionals and experts in gerontological nursing education at Turku University of Applied Sciences. It will be delivered through online learning and seminar days and is part of an international collaboration with partners from Latvia, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, and Åland.

The presentation ended with a question for all healthcare professionals, when You meet an elderly patient:
“Can You See the Big Picture?”
We thank Varha for the opportunity to join the event and all participants for their interest and valuable discussions.